This morning, quite by accident, I found the Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi (SPAV or Vivaldi's Women), a U.K. based, all female choir and orchestra. This morning I was wanting to play some music, however, being at my parent's house for Easter I have to use the DVD and TV as they don't have a separate sound system; turning on the same a performance of the Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi was airing on ABC 1 in Sydney (for non-Australians, the equivalent of the BBC or PBS). Much intrigued I checked the TV guide and then Googling the group's name I found their Internet site.The documentary on the TV was painfully short, a real teaser - 30 minutes. The music and the setting were rich, a performance of Vivaldi's Gloria, filmed in 2005 on location at the Santa Maria della Pieta in Venice. A great discovery, and if you like Baroque music its well worth a listen and a look!
The next step, of course, is to see if I can get any of their music or see the full documentary. I'll try the BBC, the ABC here, and my favourite record shop, and the SPAV - they of course will know where their music has been published. For information about the SPAV go to their site. There you will find excerpts from a performance, and from the documentary Vivaldi's women. If you are in the U.K. or Europe keep your eyes and ears for any concerts the SPAV may give.
If you want to know more about Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Wikipedia has a good non-specialist article.
Image: © SPAV (used without permission), 2009.
3 comments:
HI, I am the new Bass in SPAV and I came across your blog while googling the group - thanks for enjoying our music! We will have a DVD available for sale in the fall, and a new documentary will air (in Europe, anyways) on Sky Arts in September. We are hoping to go on a US Tour in April 2010, as well. I hope we can produce a CD as well, maybe you should write to the director and request it : ) cheers, Sue
Thanks Sue for visiting! I did write the artistic director, who put me in touch with the treasurer/secretary, and apparently something is now winging its way to me down here. I was impressed by what I saw on the tube last earlier this week and I'm happy that the SPAV is willing to indulge me! I had a look at your blog and think I'll drop back from time-to-time as some of what you 'rant' about interests me. Good luck with the SPAV and everything else. Cheers, Peter N.
Our DVD is now ready for sale! Please visit http://www.spav.co.uk/ to order a copy, and the audio version will be on iTunes in the next week or so.
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